Insider

known as Iron Bonds. Since, say, some bearer's bonds had been stolen at

Lamass bank robbery and they needed to find out how the current bonds' owners had acquired them. The securities' rating collapsed almost by a factor of two and in a day Shavash threw Igon out with a scandal, published a denouncement and paid the interest off right on time so that practically in a week the rating was back to normal. Remarkably, you bought forty million worth of these securities right after Igon's announcement and sold them in a week at, correspondingly, eighty million. You were also reckless enough to transfer, at the same time, quite a significant amount of money to Shavash's and Igon's accounts.'

'Has the anarchist dug it out or has it been your work?' Bemish inquired.

'It was the anarchist. He spent a month in your computer and then he tried hacking into our systems and he was uncovered. He was also likely to find out a lot of interesting stuff about the spaceport.'

Bemish was silent. The guy could surely learn a lot of interesting stuff about the spaceport. Bemish clenched his teeth sometimes realizing what was happening at the spaceport. The 'fan' approach to the formation of export-import companies that existed for two months only, till the deadline for the first tax declaration, was the most innocent trick out of what was happening.

But there was nothing else to do — so many gifts were required, so many unofficial expenses were needed on the top of official ones, and Bemish sadly realized that the larger was the embezzlement scale, the safer the embezzlement was.

X X X

The next day, the security department crew got together in Bemish's office again.

The size of the damage caused by the anarchist was quite large; Bemish's calls had most probably been tapped. Certainly, the anarchist had had access to the Assalah director's personal computer and therefore to the files dealing with the funds' operations.

'Frankly,' Giles admitted after the conversation had been finished, 'The theft itself bothers me less than the guy's contacts with Kissur. He is such an unpredictable man! He patronizes us and at the same time he patronizes the guy who would smear a launching chute with plastic explosives without any guilt whatsoever!'

'Would you like, Giles, to prevent Kissur from hanging out together with terrorists?'

'Well?'

'He applied to the military academy, didn't he? Accept him.'

'It's impossible…'

'Why?'

'Firstly, this man started his acquaintance with our equipment kidnapping a military airplane that he immediately put to its intended use. Secondly, Kissur is a savage. He should learn algebra first.'

'Come on, you are not going to make a rocket battle cruiser commander out of him. Eight years ago this man was an excellent war leader. War and freedom were the same for him because freedom was for him the right to kill. And when the sovereign asked him to eradicate separatists three years ago, he and his people appeared to manage rocket launchers pretty well.'

'Are you asking this on your own volition,' Giles inquired, 'or has Kissur asked you?'

'I am asking this on my own. Kissur will die first before he asks Earthmen for anything. But I know, Giles, that he is capable of God knows what if he is not busy with something useful. He is not going to take bribes, he can't be a sovereign's lapdog, the only thing he can do is to fight. Earthmen came and destroyed his old war. He applied to the academy but they didn't let him into the new war. How can a man, who won more battles that our generals conducted maneuvers, take it?'

'The new war is not what Kissur thinks it is.'

'That's exactly why it would be useful for Kissur make a closer acquaintance with it.'

X X X

In two days, Shavash finally appeared at the spaceport. It was an official visit — Shavash accompanied a Joined Economics Assembly committee — and they were in public during the entire visit. At the second chute, Shavash leaned to the company director's ear and asked quietly,

'Where is your deputy, Ashinik, by the way?'

'He took a one week vacation,' Bemish said.

'Ah, he took a vacation… You know something akin to a Following the Way meeting started in Inissa, in Gaddar. They are having a celebration of somebody's 'resurrection' and working meetings of the circles' heads.

'Well?' Bemish said.

'These people are very dangerous,' Shavash shook his head. 'We have to smile and tell the world community that the people who consider Earthmen to be demons are no more important than the people on Earth who spend their time in mental institutions and claim themselves to be Napoleons — but I warn you, Terence, that even you don't know how dangerous they are.'

'What are you whispering about?' a committee member asked.

Bemish turned to his countryman and said that they were whispering about local Dahan factory that supplied the construction with titanium supports and started explaining the problems they had with supplies.

The Tenth Chapter

Where Terence Bemish becomes familiar with provincial life of the Empire while Mr. Shavash offers an original plan for the restructuring of the state debt.

Giles returned from Earth in three days and he brought a bulky bundle of papers sealed with vacuum tape — for authorized personnel only. Giles handed the bundle to Bemish and locked the door, and Bemish mounted his legs on the table and engrossed himself in the papers.

In an hour, having looked through the documents, Bemish said,

'That's great but have you talked to your bosses about my request?'

'What request do you mean?'

'I mean Kissur and the military academy.'

'Yes. They are against it.'

'Why?'

Giles paused.

'Terence, tell me, have you told Kissur what we are building here?'

'How does it matter?'

'It matters because five years ago, after Kissur had escaped from Earth, he found himself in a Gera training camp. It was there that he learned how to handle rocket launchers and all the other modern killing machinery that he manages now so well.'

'Is that all?'

'No, it's not all. Haven't you forgotten the guy who came to the construction with Kissur's reference letter and hacked your computer?'

'It was not Kissur's reference letter. It was a reference letter from one of his bailiffs. These letters cost ten 'pinkies' a piece on the local black market. Would you like me to get a dozen for you by tomorrow?'

'A month ago Kissur flew to Cassandra. He met an old acquaintance of his there — this guy.'

And Giles fished a photo out of his pocket and put it down in front of Bemish.

'This man, by the way, led at some point anarcho-terrorist group ABC. He has on his account…'

'I am not interested in his account,' Bemish cut off the spy.

'Really? Shavash was quite interested.'

'I would recommend to you not to discuss these matters with Shavash — you and Shavash have different goals.'

'What do you mean?'

'You want to figure out whether or not Kissur is connected to terrorists and Shavash wants to prove that he is connected to them. Of course, he will proove it.'

'Will his conclusion be purely arbitrary?'

'Kissur is a thousand and one adventures. If a house next to him is on fire, he will run in and save a child. If a house is not on fire, he may start one. Of course, a terrorist visited Kissur. Kissur is too colorful a figure not to be visited. So what? I didn't see Shavash right when you were asking him this question but I could swear that he was